Yesterday, 11:39 PM
This post was last modified: Yesterday, 11:39 PM by GENERAL EYES.
DOJ memo stokes fear among disability advocates of a return to institutionalization.
(from the article)
"As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, [this memo] threatens to drag our nation back to a dark and shameful era of ignorance and cruelty," said the American Association of People with Disabilities. "This interpretation will open the doors for states to revert to warehousing people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind in institutions."
"This opinion is a direct threat to decades of progress toward community living for people with disabilities," said Shira Wakschlag of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit disability advocacy group. "People with disabilities shouldn't be forced into institutions because a state refuses to provide services in the community."
The courts and Congress decided institutionalization should be a last resort because people's personal liberty is at stake, says Jennifer Mathis of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: "Who you can see, when you can go out, when you eat, what you eat. Who your roommate is, who you talk to, what your environment is. And for so many people who are institutionalized, their life is literally a hallway. I have been on those hallways with people. It is deadening."
(Personal commentary to follow : )
I read this article a few days ago, and couldn't get it out of my head.
It hasn't been mentioned here onsite so I thought I'd bring it to your attention and get feedback from the community on this issue.
One of the reason I decided to bring it up now is I just awoke from a nightmare in which I was institutionalized against my will, and pigeonholed into a lifetime of such because I was viewed as a "dash cow" for the intitutions funding. In the dream the facility was understaffed by people who didn't want to be there, and filled to the brim with drug addicts and malcontents of all sorts, and it was futile to even concieve of seeing the Outside or one's family again.
As someone who has battled the challenges of Schizophrenia for well over 30 years (thank gods I'm high functioning) I've been in a multitude of inpatient care facilities when my condition got the better or me over the years, from first rate modern care to places that are barely able to keep the electicial wiring in the ceiling.
Some places were staffed with kind, compassionate health care professionals, and others, by folks who probably barely scraped by with a certificate for such work, who had little to no interest in the needs or well being of the afflicted in their care...those places were souless and psychologically damaging to experience from my perspective.
In general, I have found that within the current system there is a wide berth of competence and care available as is, and more often than not, they are inclined to hold you in their care for as long as legally possible to insure they get the maximum payout from the insurance companies, regardless of whether or not you are fit to be released sooner.
In light of these facts, I'd love to know what the community thinks about this memo proposal to literally rip people away from their families and communities in the name of rediverting finances towards "approved channels and institutions" to make a profit off of what I can only forsee as unnessesary human suffering and forced imprisionment in various facilities designed to house and "care" for them.
Personally, I think this is a slippery slope when it comes to the rights and inherent human dignity of a free citizen who may get caught up in a blind sweep of insuring as many bodies fill as many institutions as possible int he least amount of time....no system is perfect, an with the track record of the current administration and some of the states goals as they stand, I fear many innocent Americans will fall through the cracks on this one.
I look forward to your opinions and commentary, critiqu and conversation on this issue.
(from the article)
"As America prepares to celebrate 250 years of independence, [this memo] threatens to drag our nation back to a dark and shameful era of ignorance and cruelty," said the American Association of People with Disabilities. "This interpretation will open the doors for states to revert to warehousing people with disabilities out of sight and out of mind in institutions."
"This opinion is a direct threat to decades of progress toward community living for people with disabilities," said Shira Wakschlag of The Arc of the United States, a nonprofit disability advocacy group. "People with disabilities shouldn't be forced into institutions because a state refuses to provide services in the community."
The courts and Congress decided institutionalization should be a last resort because people's personal liberty is at stake, says Jennifer Mathis of the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law: "Who you can see, when you can go out, when you eat, what you eat. Who your roommate is, who you talk to, what your environment is. And for so many people who are institutionalized, their life is literally a hallway. I have been on those hallways with people. It is deadening."
(Personal commentary to follow : )
I read this article a few days ago, and couldn't get it out of my head.
It hasn't been mentioned here onsite so I thought I'd bring it to your attention and get feedback from the community on this issue.
One of the reason I decided to bring it up now is I just awoke from a nightmare in which I was institutionalized against my will, and pigeonholed into a lifetime of such because I was viewed as a "dash cow" for the intitutions funding. In the dream the facility was understaffed by people who didn't want to be there, and filled to the brim with drug addicts and malcontents of all sorts, and it was futile to even concieve of seeing the Outside or one's family again.
As someone who has battled the challenges of Schizophrenia for well over 30 years (thank gods I'm high functioning) I've been in a multitude of inpatient care facilities when my condition got the better or me over the years, from first rate modern care to places that are barely able to keep the electicial wiring in the ceiling.
Some places were staffed with kind, compassionate health care professionals, and others, by folks who probably barely scraped by with a certificate for such work, who had little to no interest in the needs or well being of the afflicted in their care...those places were souless and psychologically damaging to experience from my perspective.
In general, I have found that within the current system there is a wide berth of competence and care available as is, and more often than not, they are inclined to hold you in their care for as long as legally possible to insure they get the maximum payout from the insurance companies, regardless of whether or not you are fit to be released sooner.
In light of these facts, I'd love to know what the community thinks about this memo proposal to literally rip people away from their families and communities in the name of rediverting finances towards "approved channels and institutions" to make a profit off of what I can only forsee as unnessesary human suffering and forced imprisionment in various facilities designed to house and "care" for them.
Personally, I think this is a slippery slope when it comes to the rights and inherent human dignity of a free citizen who may get caught up in a blind sweep of insuring as many bodies fill as many institutions as possible int he least amount of time....no system is perfect, an with the track record of the current administration and some of the states goals as they stand, I fear many innocent Americans will fall through the cracks on this one.
I look forward to your opinions and commentary, critiqu and conversation on this issue.
"Gradually I began to intellectually reject some of the delusionally influenced lines of thinking which had been characteristic of my orientation. This began, most recognizably, with the rejection of politically-oriented thinking as essentially a hopeless waste of intellectual effort." ~ John Forbes Nash
